LG 32EP950 OLED monitor initial impressions

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Bigmonitorguy

Limp Gawd
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Jan 2, 2020
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The 32EP950 is clearly not a gaming monitor, so let's leave that aside. For many other things it's superb.

Image quality is about as good as it gets as long as you don't need extreme levels of brightness.

Both SDR and HDR look great. Again, with the caveat that this is not an extremely bright panel. It is bright-enough for me - not really complaining about that.

Text quality is also excellent thanks to the RGB pixel structure (unlike the WRGB in LG TVs).

No issues with my unit other than one dead pixel. Perfect otherwise - excellent uniformity, etc.

Unlike the case with OLED TVs - no noticeable ABL and pixel shift.

One problem for me is that it's a semi-glossy panel, so it does suffer from reflections. I much prefer matte on monitors because I don't like to spend the day in a dark room.

There are also the limitations in how the monitor should be used to reduce the chance of burn-in - that's a given with OLED. It is a bummer, though. Not a fan of a black background, hiding the desktop icons, hiding the taskbar, etc.
 
How do you feel about its HDR performance vs PA32UCG? For desktop use the OLED will probably work better if left in HDR mode but what about performance in games and movies?

I'm using an LG OLED TV as a monitor and for me using a black background and hiding desktop icons is a non-issue because I rarely see them in the first place since I have enough windows open to cover most of the desktop.
 
I have a question about refresh rate support. In the LTT video it showed it supporting out-of-the-box 24Hz, 48Hz, and 60Hz.

Does it by chance support 50Hz if you use a custom resolution and, if so, does it support it without any frame-drops or the like?

(if you aren't aware, the vast majority of video content created in historically-PAL territories are mastered at multiples of 25fps rather than multiples of 30fps)


EDIT: I should also probably inquire about 75Hz via a custom resolution as well since sometimes that can actually be better supported than 50Hz on monitors due to 75Hz being a bog-standard VESA refresh rate (50Hz definitely tends to have much better support on TVs however). For example, I have a smaller HP monitor that doesn't support anything out-of-the-box except 60Hz, and any custom resolution makes the monitor throw up an "unsupported signal"... except for a custom resolution with 75Hz which works perfectly.
 
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kasakka said:
How do you feel about its HDR performance vs PA32UCG? For desktop use the OLED will probably work better if left in HDR mode but what about performance in games and movies?

I'm using an LG OLED TV as a monitor and for me using a black background and hiding desktop icons is a non-issue because I rarely see them in the first place since I have enough windows open to cover most of the desktop.
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HDR performance on the 32EP950 is better than on the PA32UCG in all respects other than that it has lower peak brightness.

The issues with the desktop on the PA32UCG are caused by the local dimming algorithm, not SDR vs HDR. I just disable local dimming when using the desktop.

Games and movies look wonderful in both SDR and HDR on the 32EP950. Better than on the PA32UCG - no blooming or other FALD shenanigans. OLED is just great for that kind of thing. Unfortunately, the 32EP950 doesn't support VRR and high refresh rates, so it's not well-suited for gaming. On the other hand, it does have a very fast response time, which helps with games. It's really too bad about the lack of VRR which means you need to use V-sync.

If you don't game much, and you don't mind the measures to protect against burn-in, I would recommend the 32EP950. Otherwise, the PA32UCG. There's also the option of getting the less expensive PG32UQX.
 
Have the 32EP950. Can confirm.

In 90% of mixed content (neither super dark nor super bright) it is on par with the PG27UQ. In dark content, it crushes the PG27UQ (no halo, bloom, etc obviously). I can see detail in dark HDR content that is just invisible on the PG27UQ. On very bright scenes/bright specular highlights, it's annoying because these details just can't be rendered well on it.

Even for gaming, apart from lack of 120hz, 32EP950 is damn good.

32EP950 is the second best monitor I have ever used (and I have used a lot).
 
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